Observation Term 3 2014 - writing lesson

Maths 'talk moves' observations

ALiM teacher was to observe each teacher throughout the school over two visits. First visit I was ill with the flu but pushed through it as I didn't want to inconvenience the teacher by postponing. The lesson went reasonably well and we discussed the lesson afterwards.

In between observations which were a few months apart, I organised a time to observe the ALiM teacher in action in her own class. This was an awesome chance for me to pick up some new tricks which I then used in my class with success.

The second observation took place and through discussion afterwards, the feedback was all positive and it was nice to hear I was doing a great job. The ALiM teacher gave me some further suggestions for me to work on. Ace!

The Talk Moves in which we had professional development as a staff was a focus of mine. I used this as part of a teacher inquiry for 2014 and my practice definitely benefitted from professional colleagues who are maths lead teachers, ALiM and overall more experienced than myself.

Professional Development 2013/2014

2013

-        ‘Let’s Talk Maths’, symposium, Te Toi Tupu

-        Foundation Skills for Literacy, Louise Dempsey followed by ‘The Writing Book’ session where Louise was joined by Sheena Cameron

-        Writing workshops with Gail Loane (targeting reluctant writers)

-        IT focus: iMovie, iPhoto, Strip Design, Explain Everything, Life Cards, Puppet Pals. This PD was awesome, learnt a lot (probably actually too much as my brain often felt overloaded trying to keep up with each new App) but I have used all successfully in my classroom. 

-        ‘The Wilkie Way’, three maths sessions led by Charlotte Wilkinson, author of Pearson Education mathematics texts

-        Swimming with Cecilie Elliot, State Kiwi Swim Safe instructor

-        Coaching and development session with Taranaki Cricket

-        Football training and development session with Central Football

-        Beach safety education, East End Surf Lifesaving Club

2014

-        Incredible Years Training, six sessions over two terms.

-        Maths development sessions with Rhian Johnson, Te Toi Tupu instructor
- Visit to Highlands to see their maths in practise. Discussion with Maths Lead Teacher around Talk Moves and ensuring my maths was leading my year 6 children in the right direction. 

-        Restorative practice- school wide development sessions

-        Explicitly Teaching Writing led by Stephen Graham. This led to a senior syndicate focus on information report writing where we saw major successes in the development of the level of writing, with evidence from a pre and post writing sample. It followed clear guidelines as to how to outline a text and it made it clear and simple for both teacher and child to use. I think this was one of the better PD sessions I have done so far.

-        Story telling and creative workshops by Stu Duval

Incredible Years Training 2014

I was lucky enough to go on the IY training course this year. What an exciting professional development opportunity. 4, 2, 7

Key things I learnt:

• How to focus on the positives
• How to build and maintain relationships with whānau
• How to create learners who feel confident, who are able to self regulate, who are proud to share their successes and who feel their teacher invests their time in them
• What low level undesired behaviours can be avoided by using strategies such as proximal praise
• Overall be a proactive teacher

Early in the course we all had to develop a behaviour plan for a child in our class. My child's behaviour was not extreme, rather he was inattentive, not completing work, calling out and distracting others, which was getting frustrating as it was affecting his learning and that of his peers. Through developing the behaviour plan for this child, I was able to really focus on what triggers were causing the behaviour and then to work out how I could attend to it. I initially started by really trying to build up a relationship with the child- making time to ask how his day was, getting him to do extra tasks for me (deliver notes etc) which I felt was the start of letting the child know I was aware of him as a learner 1. I initially recorded some data about how often the behaviours were occurring, where and when 11, 12. I then developed the next steps in the behaviour plan and over several weeks push the frequency at which the child exhibited the undesired behaviours decreased significantly. The behaviour plan is still in place but is ingrained in my everyday practice with this child so it is less of a focused drive from my point.

Key thing I noted throughout the focus on this behaviour plan is that the benefits of using the IY strategies actually led to a decrease in the undesired behaviours of other children too. The children are more supportive of each other and they are able to recognise strengths in others and equity is an understood and practised value. Children have taken on much more responsibility for their own actions and learning 7, 8

I had two observations by Vicki Scouller (RTLB and IY Group Leader) who was pleased with my development using the strategies. It was great to hear the positives from a professional colleague and IY mentor and she gave me a couple of things to work on which I appreciated 1, 12. The 7 sessions made for amazing PD. The collection of teachers gathered really inspired me to make changes for the better in my classroom. Teachers are a wealth of knowledge and it was great to work with others (all were from wider Taranaki schools) and hear that we all have trials and tribulations and that we could focus on building up the positives for each other 1. Each time I went, I came back refreshed and ready to crack on.  Coming back to school meant trying new things and sharing some of the strategies with a colleague who has not been IY trained. This hopefully made some impact in some small way to her practice. 

IT buddy progress and development

As the school website was updated this year, each teacher who was deemed more 'IT literate' was buddied with someone who needed more support. I am proficient at using IT and as a staff PD we were taken through the ins and outs of a class blog on the new website 4. We were shown how to update the class blog and I picked it up first go. I have enjoyed using this blog to show my class learning over the year, and I have extended it to my class being able to write the blog from their perspective and I have then uploaded it.

I have worked 4 times with my IT buddy, each time working on her creating a blog for her classroom and slowly going through the steps providing support and encouragement. One session was on the transfer of photos and videos from the teacher iPad over to her laptop. This was something we will spend another session on if need be. 1, 5

A couple of colleagues have made it known that they are struggling with their own personal blog for their RTC. I have offered to show them the basics this afternoon to get them started on their journey. There are still things I do not know on here but it is about exploration and trial and error.
I feel like I have approached my colleagues who need support with an open and non-judgemental attitude which I know they have appreciated. I have ensured that they do not feel embarrassed about needing assistance as I am sure many a time they have helped me out without a second thought. 5

In development of my CV, I have added my class blog address so prospective employers can see a glimpse of what happens in my classroom. I feel this shows not only my teaching practice but also my IT skills to a small degree. As of Feb 2015 I have removed this link from my CV as I am no longer at Central School so the blog address has been wiped.